Dungeon Myths - 3D 1st person dungeon crawler/RPG in the spirit of Lands of Lore

[FancyFactory]

Hi everybody,

welcome to Fancy Factory's upcoming dungeon crawler: Dungeon Myths - The Sewers of Stonehaven

Dungeon Myths is an 1'st person dungeon adventure with a lot of RPG elements, classic oldschool gameplay and last generation graphics. The game is less about statistics and numbers and more about exploring, slaying monsters, casting spells and following the comprehensive storyline. There will be NO auto-map and YES, this is actually a feature.
Have you ever played Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, Might and Magic, Wizardy or - most recent - The Legend of Grimrock? Then you already have an idea about the game mechanics. You move your party step-by-step within a grid-based, gorgeous looking 3D environment, solving puzzles and fighting monsters. Latest generation graphics with quite different dungeon environments, dangerous creatures and an unique story hopefully will keep you entertained.

This game is developed for iOS and Android based latest generation tablets. So that means, in case you own an iPad 2, iPad Mini or a similar powerful Android tablet, you'll get the best visual experience possible on your tablet.

Please enjoy the following images:

(please click an image for a larger preview)

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. As long as it's not about a release date of the game.
The game is still early in development, so a release in 2013 is very unlikely.

I will keep you posted here about the progress. Furthermore please visit Fancy Factory's Facebook home for latest updates.


Regards, Axel

[Aventador]

My first thought was LoL ( Lands of Lore series remastered ).Already looks like a very promising and polished game ( screenshots are beautiful ) , I will keep my eye on it

[FancyFactory]

Well, the main source of inspiration are in fact old Westwood games like Lands of Lore and Eye of the Beholder. Dungeon Myths is for sure a project of love of mine and I really love EoB and LoL.
So similarities in look'n'feel are somewhat intentional. However, Dungeon Myths will be a very unique game on its own and is optimized for tablet usage and touch controls.

Originally Posted by Aventador

My first thought was LoL ( Lands of Lore series remastered ).Already looks like a very promising and polished game ( screenshots are beautiful ) , I will keep my eye on it

[undeadcow]

Originally Posted by FancyFactory

...Maybe - and that's a large "maybe" - even for iPhone and Android smartphones....

What development considerations would limit a iPhone/iPod/Universal build? Smartphones make up a majority of the prospective market for games like this; cutting them out could be a financial/marketing disadvantage.

[iPadisGreat]

No iPad Mini support?

[Tommet]

Instabuy. IF it runs on hardware I have.

[FancyFactory]

As the current iPad Mini is based on iPad 2's hardware it is unlikely. But the game will run on upcoming models - with hardware based on the current iPad or better.
All the eye candy needs at least an iPad 3 for getting the full experience. I could scale down the geometry details and shader magic to support older hardware, but I don't want to do so. There would be too many restrictions.

Regards, Axel

Originally Posted by iPadisGreat

No iPad Mini support?

[drelbs]

I eagerly await owning hardware that will run this game!

[DungeonPlunder]

Originally Posted by FancyFactory

As the current iPad Mini is based on iPad 2's hardware it is unlikely. But the game will run on upcoming models - with hardware based on the current iPad or better.
All the eye candy needs at least an iPad 3 for getting the full experience. I could scale down the geometry details and shader magic to support older hardware, but I don't want to do so. There would be too many restrictions.

Regards, Axel

First of all gorgeous game. I'll definitely keep a close eye on it's development being an addict of the genre.

If you want this to sell well you must at the minimum support iPad 2s and minis. As I write this iPad 2s and Minis are still being sold so they're not legacy hardwares by any means. These customers will not change their device in the next year. I'd even take a guess that they are together probably outselling the full priced iPad: just in my immediate surrounding the last 4 iPads that were recently purchased by relatives and friends were all Minis and 2s.

Also look into having it universal. iPads are only a small fraction of the pie, 1 tablet sold for every 3 phones/iPod Touches in the last Quarter (and it was a record one for iPads in which Mini sales cannibalized iPod Touch sales). I'd build the game from grounds up to run on a iPhone5/iPod Touch 5 widescreen if your release is far away. I believe it's much easier to scale up then scale down so if you're early in development do the switch right away. You'll also grab Android Phones sales to boot with.

Good luck with your game!

[FancyFactory]

Hey DungeonPlunder,

thanks a lot for sharing your opinion with us. I fully understand this and, marketing - and money wise, you are all right. But...and this may sound silly or crazy now...I'm doing this project only secondly for the money. I have a strong vision about the fact how the game should look like. And I don't want to make compromises in regards to the visuals. My artists all have the instruction to make the 3D part as good possible, as long as an iPad 4 can handle it. If we focus from the very first day on specific hardware we can produce the best result possible. And it's less work testing the game only on this specific hardware.

Furthermore please remember the game is in an early development stage. Lets say it will be published next year, and given Apples speed in upgrading its devices, even an iPad 4 will be most likely "old school" then.

With regards to the iPhone: in fact the game IS being developed for iPhone 5 and better. And it runs quite nicely on this device. But I'm not happy with the usability. Given the current GUI and it's tiny buttons there it's no fun to play. The best way would be to change the 3D window to a fullscreen window and to develop a fitting GUI for small devices. This will be an expensive task booth in time and money - and it will destroy my "vision" how the game should look like. I dont want to have a fullscreen 3D window. I want to have the game - visually - as close as possible to it's predecessors and role models. I guess I'm a real stubborn head on that.
Well, thats not the final word on that.

Regards, Axel

Originally Posted by DungeonPlunder

First of all gorgeous game. I'll definitely keep a close eye on it's development being an addict of the genre.

If you want this to sell well you must at the minimum support iPad 2s and minis. As I write this iPad 2s and Minis are still being sold so they're not legacy hardwares by any means. These customers will not change their device in the next year. I'd even take a guess that they are together probably outselling the full priced iPad: just in my immediate surrounding the last 4 iPads that were recently purchased by relatives and friends were all Minis and 2s.

Also look into having it universal. iPads are only a small fraction of the pie, 1 tablet sold for every 3 phones/iPod Touches in the last Quarter (and it was a record one for iPads in which Mini sales cannibalized iPod Touch sales). I'd build the game from grounds up to run on a iPhone5/iPod Touch 5 widescreen if your release is far away. I believe it's much easier to scale up then scale down so if you're early in development do the switch right away. You'll also grab Android Phones sales to boot with.

Good luck with your game!